Gottfried von Einem was one of the most prominent Austrian composers in the 1950s–70s, actively producing operas, ballets, orchestral, chamber, choral works, and song cycles.
Category: Reviews
Britten: Hymn to St Cecilia – RIAS Kammerchor
Benjamin Britten Choral Songs from RIAS Kammerchor, from Harmonia mundi, in their first recording with new Chief Conductor Justin Doyle, featuring the Hymn to St. Cecilia, A Hymn to the Virgin, the Choral Dances from Gloriana, the Five Flower Songs op 47 and Ad majorem Dei gloriam op 17.
Si vous vouliez un jour – William Christie: Airs SÈrieux et ‡ boire vol 2
“Si vous vouliez un jour…” Volume 2 of the series Airs SÈrieux et ‡ boire, with Sir William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, from Harmonia Mundi, following on from the highly acclaimed “Bien que l’amour” Volume 1. Recorded live at the Philharmonie de Paris in April 2016, this new release is as vivacious and enchanting as the first.
Burying the Dead: Ceruleo offer ‘Baroque at the Edge’
“Who are you? And what are you doing in my bedroom?”
‘Sound the trumpet’: countertenor duets at Wigmore Hall
This programme of seventeenth-century duets, odes and instrumental works was meticulously and finely delivered by countertenors Iestyn Davies and James Hall, with The King’s Consort, but despite the beauty of the singing and the sensitivity of the playing, somehow it didn’t quite prove as affecting as I had anticipated.
Brenda Rae’s superb debut at Wigmore Hall
My last visit of the year to Wigmore Hall also proved to be one of the best of 2018. American soprano Brenda Rae has been lauded for her superb performances in the lyric coloratura repertory, in the US and in Europe, and her interpretation of the title role in ENO’s 2016 production of Berg’s Lulu had the UK critics reaching for their superlatives.
POP BohËme: Melodic, Manic, Misbehaving Hipsters
Pacific Opera Project is in its fourth annual, sold out run of Puccini’s La bohËme: AKA ‘The Hipsters’, and it may seem at first blush that nothing succeeds like success.
Edward Gardner conducts Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ
L’Enfance du Christ is not an Advent work, but since most of this country’s musical institutions shut down over Christmas, Advent is probably the only chance we shall have to hear it – and even then, only on occasion. But then Messiah is a Lenten work, and yet …
Fantasia on Christmas Carols: Sonoro at Kings Place
The initial appeal of this festive programme by the chamber choir, Sonoro, was the array of unfamiliar names nestled alongside titles of familiar favourites from the carol repertoire.
Dickens in Deptford: Thea Musgrave’s A Christmas Carol
Both Venus and the hearth-fire were blazing at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance during this staging of Thea Musgrave’s 1979 opera, A Christmas Carol, an adaptation by the composer of Charles Dickens’ novel of greed, love and redemption.